Edward Holdsworth

Edward Holdsworth (1684–1746) was an English classical scholar, known as a neo-Latin poet.

The son of Thomas Holdsworth, rector of North Stoneham, Hampshire, he was born there on 6 August 1684, and baptised on 3 Sep He was educated at Winchester College, and in 1694 was elected a scholar at the age of nine. On 14 December 1704 he matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but in July of the following year migrated to Magdalen College on his election as a demy, graduating B.A. on 22 June 1708, and M.A. on 18 April 1711. For some years he remained at Oxford as tutor of his college, but in 1715, when his turn came to be chosen fellow, he resigned his post and left the university, because he wasn't prepared to take the oath of allegiance after the Hanoverian succession.

For the rest of his life Holdsworth was tutor in households of those who shared his political opinions, or travelled abroad with their children. Alexander Pope wrote to him (December 1737), asking him to support Walter Harte's candidature for the poetry professorship at Oxford. Joseph Spence met Holdsworth in Florence in 1732, and in his Polymetis praised him for his understanding of Virgil.

Holdsworth visited Rome in 1741, in the company of George Pitt, and in September 1742 he paid, in company with Thomas Townson and others, long visits to France and Italy, returning home with Townson by way of Mont Cenis in the autumn of 1745. They were met on their last visit to Rome by James Russel, son of Richard Russel, the reputed author of Letters from a Young Painter Abroad.

Holdsworth died of fever at Lord Digby's house, near Coleshill, Warwickshire, on 30 December 1746, and was buried in the church on 4 January.

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